The Lexicon Features of The Great Gatsby

劉娜

Abstract： F. Scott. Fitzgerald is widely praised as the most celebrated novelist in the 20th century America. His novel The Great Gatsby is considered to be a reflection of the Jazz Age in the 1920s. It shows Fitzgeralds talent and his writing techniques. Based on theories of literary stylistics， the author explored and analyzed the stylistic features of the novel from the lexicon use in order to achieve a better understanding of the novel.

Keywords： The Great Gatsby， Writing Technique， Lexicon use

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the life style and spiritual life of the young American in 1920s. One of the simple reasons that The Great Gatsby is considered to be an American classic is its use of language.in this essay， the author mainly talks about two types of words the author employs in the book， hoping to make help readers better understand the details in the novel.

Fitzgeralds language is figurative. The narrator Nike employs a wide range of abstract words to describe his impressions on the man. For example， when Nike talks about Gatsby in the first chapter he uses lots of words as “something”， “sensitivity， “impressionability” ， “gift” and “readiness” to show Gatsbys personality. These vocabularies could be informative and tell readers that Gatsby is a man with dream and ability and make readers to pay more attention to Gatsbys personality through his words and actions. After which people can discover the inner world of the protagonist. In the meantime， the large scale of abstract words also gives us the impression that things he manages to get is just an illusion rather than concrete one and is doomed to be defeated.We may see all these words in the novel and it is these abstract vocabularies which encourage readers to realize the destroy of the main character is inevitable.

There is another lexicon characteristics within this novel-adjectives are used to create some romantic feelings， visualized scenes as well as putting more emphasis on the theme of this novel. In the following sentence， we can appreciate adjectives which are employed and find the contribution of them to the novel.

Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it， bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth—but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget： a singing compulsion， a whispered “l(fā)isten，” a promise that she had done gay， exciting things just a while since and that there were gay， exciting things hovering in the next hour.（F. Scott. Fitsgerald， 13）endprint

There are nine adjectives in the sentence， they are sad， bright， passionate......While， it is meaningful for the author to put two words whose meanings are totally different in one sentence. For instance， “sad” and “l(fā)ovely”， it may give us a feeling of being puzzled. As a matter of fact， such contradictory usage helps readers to visualize the real face and appearance of the woman： it is both sad and endearing. On the one hand， given that Daisy is lovely， the author uses the word “bright”for three times to emphasize Daisys beautiful face； on the other hand， “sad” is really not a good word to describe her. While， it actually gives readers such kind of feeling that even though her sad face can not fade her attraction to others. Besides， the word “exciting” are used two times， which also helps people discover the inner happiness of the female.

Even though the abstract and contradictory words are sometimes hard to understand， we can still try to explore the implied meaning of them by combining them with context. Readers are also expected to find out more than the author shows them to discover the theme of the novel.endprint